Biography - Josiah Throgmorton
JOSIAH THROGMORTON, who has been a prosperous farmer for sixteen years in Burnside Township, and also thirteen years on his present farm of one hundred and sixty-seven acres on sections 24 and 25, was born in Johnson County in 1855. His father, Josiah Throgmorton, was born in North Carolina in 1811, and was reared and married in that State. His first wife was a Miss McSwain, who bore him three children and died in North Carolina. He was married the second time, to Martha Pierce, the mother of the subject of this sketch, and by her he had six sons and three daughters, of whom Josiah was the seventh child in order of birth. One daughter died in infancy; John was a soldier in the War of the Rebellion, was wounded in the battle of Shiloh and probably died; Eliza died about 1873 at the age of twenty-three years. The father of these children died in 1872 at the age of sixty-two. He came to Illinois with his second wife and four children well into the '40s a poor man, but with his own team of oxen. He took up Government land in Johnson County and purchased a farm under deed of one hundred and twenty acres, upon which he lived some twenty years. This farm he then sold, and he bought in Burnside an eighty-acre farm, on which he resided until his death. His widow, aged seventy-four years, is still living in Williamson County with her son Pinkey, who was a soldier in the late war.
Josiah lived at home on the farm and attended school a part of the time, and learned the common English branches, until he was married in November, 1875, to Miss Lizzie Reeves, a native of Kentucky, and daughter of Absalom and Louisa (Blackstone) Reeves, both of whom died in Kentucky. Our subject and his wife began life on a rented farm in this county and within three years were enabled to buy forty acres of land, to which he soon afterward added ten acres. To this tract were added thirty acres more, then twenty-five, next fifteen, and finally forty-seven acres, making one hundred and sixty-seven broad and fertile acres, for which he has paid from $5 to $15 per acre. He has improved much of this land and has planted five acres in orchard trees, apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries and grapes. His farming is mixed husbandry, he growing more winter wheat than any other crop, but also a considerable amount of corn. His corn yields about thirty-five bushels and his wheat averages twenty bushels to the acre, and a number of cattle, horses, sheep and hogs will be found on this well-kept farm.
Mr. Throgmorton is a member of the Board of School Directors and is Overseer of the Poor. He is a Master Mason and also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. All of his eight children are living: Martha Louisa, sixteen years of age; John Henry, fourteen years; Thomas Arthur, twelve; Emmet F., ten; William A., eight; Walter Lee, six; Nellie Pearl, four; and Norris, two years old. They are all in school except the eldest and the two youngest, the purpose of Mr. Throgmorton being to give them a good education. This honored gentleman built his present fine, large, two-story frame house in 1890; it is 36x38 feet in size, has eight rooms, and is one of the best and most modern farmhouses in this county. Mr. Throgmorton is a Republican in politics, and a highly-respected citizen of Johnson County, whose acquaintances regard him with much favor because of his sterling qualities and genial social nature.
Extracted 08 May 2002 by Rick Girtman from 1893 Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope, and Hardin Counties, Illinois, pages 343-344.
